[Captivate General] techspy:
Ok, here is my story.

I have been an ATT (Cingular) customer for approx 8 years and have not been under contract for 6 or so. I bought a Fuze about a year ago and paid full price. I like buying them outright for 2 reasons. First, I still have the $15/mo "smart phone unlimited data plan". I don't want them mucking with my plan if I go with a new contract. Also, I travel out of the US sometimes and when I do, I am gone for 1-2 years at a time, so I want to be able to use foreign sims. So After I bought my Fuze I called customer service and they gave me the unlock code when I explained the situation.

So I go to a corporate kiosk last night and ask some questions about the phone. I then asked what the restriction was etc on unlocking it with various contract/no-contract scenarios. Well the 2 guys and girl I was talking to had no clue and couldn't even offer a way to find out, not even an offer to call customer service or look it up. Well, the "assistant manager" broke into the conversation after finishing with a customer and said he overheard the conversation and immediately presented a superior attitude. Seems since 90% of the people they deal with are soccer moms and kids that want only to text, they think everyone is below them when it comes to technical savvy.

Anyway, after explaining everything from the beginning again and pointing out that I have been through the process before but that there is conflicting info on whether or not the Captivate can be unlocked at the moment and I would like an official position from ATT. He then ranted on about how they are in the business of selling services and that they don't make money for selling just the phone and that they provide world wide service so going overseas isn't an excuse to get it unlocked and that I should just use their service worldwide. I said ok, do you provide service in Kosovo? After explaining to him why it isn't listed in his country list I told him that they do not have service there and that is why I need it unlocked. He then tried to explain how easy it was to google the info on how to unlock it. I tried to explain to him that I already researched it and it wasn't possible right now. He said that I need to try somewhere like Engadget, lol. I tried telling him that I know where to look and it is not available. So he googled it and showed me the first link returned which was a youtube "how to". He was proud of himself at this point so I said keep watching. It showed the link to one of the simunlock.com websites and I told him that these "unlockers" don't work and that they are having to refund money paid for unlock codes for the captivate. So he finally just said you need to call customer service which I did.

The CS rep said as far as the info she could find, the Iphone is the only one on the "exclusive 10 month list" but could not guarantee the Captivate could be unlocked until I give her the imei. I confirmed that I could buy the phone, give here the imei and she could tell me right then, and I could return it right then if it couldn't be unlocked.

So I said what the heck and was going to buy one....Then I was told that it was out of stock at the kiosk....AND there will be a $35 restocking fee if I return it.

So I told the girl that was helping me what I found out from the CSA in case she gets a question in the future. I also told her not to bother telling the assistant manager what I found out as he doesn't seem to like being given information that conflicts with what he thinks is the truth.

Anyway, I don't mind paying full price but I HAVE to be able to have it unlocked for overseas use. Hope it will be cracked soon.